


Blessings

by Hayato (TheLennyBunny)



Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: F/M, Father-Son Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-24
Updated: 2017-09-24
Packaged: 2019-01-04 23:57:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,805
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12178998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLennyBunny/pseuds/Hayato
Summary: The week they get portable teleporters running, Iemitsu packs his things and warps to Namimori. He’s got a family he hasn't seen in years, and he very much misses them.





	Blessings

When Iemitsu’s twenty-seven, the Vongola storm the Bovino as part of a concentrated effort to subsume them into the family. They’ve been causing waves recently, drawing the attention of the police with their recklessness, and it can’t be tolerated. Consequently, they come across the extensive research the Bovino have done into space and time travel. Of these, the teleporter they manufactured is of great interest.

The week they get portable versions up and running, Iemitsu packs his things and warps to Namimori. He’s got a family he hasn't seen in years, and he very much misses them.

* * *

 

Tsuna’s wary and scared of him, and it hurts more than his wife’s desperate clinging or the town’s subtle snubbing. He's quiet and withdrawn besides, but with Iemitsu there it's worse. He hides from Iemitsu and shies away from his hugs and touches and generally just tries to stay _away._ Nana says he's just getting used to seeing his father so often again, but Iemitsu knows he hasn't been with his family this long since Tsuna's birth. There's nothing to "get used to".

The boy looks at him like he's a possible enemy, treats him like an unknown who may strike any moment. He valiantly tries not to take it personally, hurt tempered with the fact it's deserved. Instead, he tones down his excitement and voice, only approaching instead of rushing up and overwhelming the kid. He stops suggesting trips and bonding activities and the “future” and instead just asks after Tsuna's day and how school is, how are his grades, does he have friends who want to come over?

Tsuna looks at him like he's insane before he heads to his room, and Nana informs him later in bed that Tsuna is the last of his class, and his peers call him Dame, as "teasing". It's not. Iemitsu knows bullying and harassment, foster child he was. He asks how long _that’s_ been going on.

Years. Since his second year of school at least. His chest aches.

Iemitsu goes to the school and makes pointed comments of involving the board and filing charges of discrimination against challenged students. They try to argue, but considering the teachers all saw and made _notes_ and did _absolutely nothing,_ they don't have a leg to stand on. Tsuna is transferred out of Namimori primary to a school on the other side of town, closer to them. The principal promises that Tsuna will be attended to duly there, and Iemitsu gets to watch a terrified Tsuna be approached by a girl as tiny as him and be asked to play with her. His tiny smile is the best goddamn thing he’s seen all year.

Tsuna looks at him like an anomaly instead of an enemy now, and its progress.

* * *

 

"Why are you here?"

Iemitsu puts his fork down. Tsuna's staring at his plate and Nana’s spluttering in her seat, but the man keeps his eyes on his son. "You were barely here for years,” he continues, spearing a bean, “So why are you staying now?"

"Tsunayoshi-!" Iemitsu raises his hand, and Nana cuts herself off. Her face is shadowed with upset.

"Tsu-kun, do you know what i do for a living?" The boy's brow creases.

"Mama said you direct traffic?"

"In a way." He agreed. "My job is very important, but it's also very dangerous, and people don't like me because I do it. I didn't want people taking out their anger on you or your mama, so I tried to make it so they didn't know about you." Tsuna scrapes his fork across his plate, frowning at the peppers there.

"So... You were trying to make sure mama and I were safe?" Iemitsu smiles.

"Yes. But... Papa was also very scared, Tsu-kun. I love you two very much, and I was scared that _I_ would somehow hurt you, and I didn't want to do that, not ever. so I stayed away. But now that I'm here, and I know I can protect you both, I know i don't want to leave no matter what, even if i mess up." Nana's got tears in her eyes, so Iemitsu draws them both into a hug. She holds at him tightly, and Tsuna hesitantly wraps his arms around one large arm.

It’s progress.

* * *

 

While he's doing better, Tsuna's grades are still low, and his coursework is still regularly providing problems. It’s unnaturally hard for him, especially since he _is_ putting effort in- Iemitsu personally helps him, when he has the time, going over math problems and working out foreign syllables with his English. The problem is he actually seems to get concepts at first- it's only after a few days the knowledge slides off him, getting muddled and corrupted. It happens no matter how much time he puts into it, and it’s obvious his son is as frustrated as his teachers are. Nana and Iemitsu are only worried.

His clumsiness is also worse, balance always off and making the boy fall or trip more than often, more than normal. It leaves him with scrapes that make the constant colds and infections miserable and risk further illness, and leaves his two parents floundering more often than not. Iemitsu can’t figure it out, until he clues into how long it's been going on. Years, Nana had said, the bullying and issues. Since he was five, in reality. Since the seal was placed on his flames.

He goes to Timoteo and begs him to take off the seal. He can protect his family now, he says, he can be with them in an instant if they are threatened and Nana can contact him easily, there's no need to have it anymore.

Timoteo points out that the reason he put it there was to keep Tsuna out of the mafia, to let him live a civilian life. Iemitsu counters that his son can barely live a life, period, with his will locked down and smothered. He’s slowly dying. He can see the mistake now, close as he is. He wants his son happy and healthy, and that means abandoning the wishful thinking that he can somehow hide his sins.

They fly the two over to Italy under the guise of a summer vacation. Tsuna's nervous but impressed, and Nana’s the perfect picture of a delighted and doting wife up until they're alone in their room in the mansion.

"You don't direct traffic." She says. He shakes his head. His transgressions burn his tongue

"I direct people. And funds, and missions." He can’t smile at her right now, can barely look at her with the guilt choking his throat. "Have you heard of the Vongola, Nana-chan?

* * *

 

She holds him gently and says she loves him no matter what. He cries into her hair and holds on as hard as he can.

* * *

Removing the seal is, in the end, an easy task. With Timoteo being to one to place it, it's simple to take it off- it's not like when one chips away at it gradually. Tsuna's gently woken at the end of it, and the boy can't stop blinking at everything. When he goes down the stairs and doesn't do more than stumble, Tsuna runs back and hugs the old mafioso. Then he hugs Iemitsu, tiny arms wrapping as tight as he can.

"Tsuna?" He hesitantly hugs the boy back, glancing at Timoteo. The boss only smiles and quietly leaves.

"Thankyou thankyou thankyou-" It's a mumbled mantra. Iemitsu smiles painfully and lets Tsuna hide his face in his stomach.

He'll do better by his family or die trying.

* * *

 

The whole of the Vongola manages to fall in love with Tsuna and Nana. Nana takes over the kitchen whenever they're in the mansion, helping the cooks and asking after them and their families; what's it like in Italy, how does one assassin-proof a house. She plays the perfect role of a criminal yamato nadeshiko by being herself, and it endears everyone to her. The highlight of it all is watching Squalo quiet the one time he visits, cowed into polite volumes by this tiny Japanese woman.

Xanxus never comes near them during that month or during any of their future visits, and frankly, Iemitsu is thankful.

In contrast, Tsuna manages to acquire about four different protectors and enough admirers to secure his safety for years. Coyote’s taken to teaching him little things whenever he shows up, adjusting his sitting posture and how he eats at the table when in polite company. Iemitsu follows it up by doing something he promised Nana, bringing Tsuna to one of Vongola’s gyms where officers train in their downtime. Tsuna looks around, face drawn and more than a little scared, jumping when Iemitsu puts a hand on his shoulder and guides him over to one of the mats. He’s absolutely terrified when Iemitsu tells him to hit him. Shakes his hand and curls his hands under his armpits.

“Tsuna, you need to hit me. If you hit me, I can tell what you’re doing wrong and show you how to do it correctly.” He says gently.

“But- but why do I need to learn this? I don’t want to hurt anyone! I don’t wanna hurt you.”

“Other people aren’t the same way, Tsuna.” Iemitsu replies. “And they don’t care if you don’t want to hurt them. They just want you to _be_ hurt.” Tsuna, for all his ten years, looks absolutely ancient. There’s a glint in his eye that says yes, he know this, he just very, very much wished he didn’t. Iemitsu wishes they had raided the Bovino earlier, that he had seen the signs sooner- but it’s wishful thinking. They don’t have room for wishes.

“Punch me, Tsuna. Hard.”

Tsuna punches.

* * *

 

Enrico dies with blood filling his lungs, and the Vongola is unsettled. For the first time in years, Iemitsu is forced to stay at the CEDEF headquarters for more than a month, and he’s terrified that it’ll drive that wedge back between him and his family. He barely manages to make space for Tsuna’s birthday, forced to go home with Lal Mirch and Oregano accompanying him. The two women are quiet but unsettled, he can tell. They aren’t built for civilian life.

Tsuna bum rushes him the moment he yells that he’s home. Iemitsu has to hold up the present in his hand to make sure the boy doesn’t crush it.

“You’ve gotten bigger.” He blankly notes. Tsuna pulls back and flails a little, stuttering something about growth spurts, and Iemitsu laughs, because his kid’s still a little puppy despite how much he’s thriving now.

“Happy birthday, Tsu-kun.”

Tsuna doesn’t have many friends, still, but the ones he does have are fiercely loyal. There’s the little girl he saw approach him on his first day of school, Haru, and a little ginger boy with obvious stress issues named Shouichi. They’re bright little kids, and it takes Iemitsu a moment to realise they’re not just bright- they’re _A_ _ctive_. A Lightning and a Cloud- and wasn’t that unnerving, an inverted Cloud of all things- making themselves home right next to Tsuna’s Sky.

Lal Mirch gave him a pointed look at dinner, which Iemitsu ignored. There wasn’t exactly a way to talk now, was there, with the kids _still there_. Seriously, woman.

He takes Tsuna aside once they’ve all gone and the boy’s preparing for bed, brushing his teeth and humming.

“Tsuna, about your friends… Have you noticed anything, er, odd?” He asked. Tsuna gave him a confused look. “Like, like, sometimes they may, er, flicker? With something? Or-”

“Do you mean the superpower thing?” Tsuna cut in. Iemitsu stared at him. “Because I figured that out back at Jii-chan’s. Coyote-san and the others tried to hide it, but they weren’t very good. I think they were too used to not having to.”

“...Yes. The superpower thing.” Tsuna nodded sagely, spitting into the sink.

“Yeah, H-Haru-chan was really surprised when I knew what she was talking about when she showed me! But she’s been able to do it for years, and Shouchan was able to too, a little while after she did, and then this weird thing like in movies happened, and we all clicked like, like I dunno. But-” He broke off, shrinking a little, “But we didn’t mean to, it just happened-”

“Tsuna, Tsuna. It’s alright, I just didn’t expect you to know about it. Or that Nougat had shown off while you were there.” He muttered under his breath. He’d have to talk about subtlety in the mansion, god knows they should be exercising it with famiglie constantly arranging meetings. “This, the ‘clicking’ just means you’ll need more lessons. We don’t want you getting linked to people you don’t like, afterall.” He ruffled his son’s hair, smiling at his shriek. Yeah. It’d be alright.

* * *

Massimo and Frederico follow Enrico. Massimo’s body is found in a lake far away from the compound, mouth opened in a scream and his eyes wide open. Frederico is smoldering ash. Iemitsu is thirty-three.

Tsuna’s only fourteen.

He comes home the night he speaks with Nono with his shoulders slumped and his face pinched into a concentrated blankness. Nana takes one look at him and packs dinner into the fridge, instead getting out the coffee and water.

“Tsuna.” He begins. Stops. Tries a few more times to start talking. “...What do you think I do?” Tsuna watches him from the other side of the table, eyes the amber they’ve been since his twelfth.

“Something dangerous.” He answers promptly. “Something that kept you from seeing mom and me until you could guarantee we were safe, and makes it so you have to hide almost everything about work.” Iemitsu flinched. Nana pat his shoulder encouragingly. She wouldn’t be so encouraging within an hour.

“I work for a family called La Vongola in Italy, as head of one of their branches..” He began. He explained who the Vongola were, what they worked in and how they barely skirted the line of legal and illegal on good days. He explained how they came about and why he of all people had been involved. He mapped out flames and what they did, how they affected a person, how to tell if someone was Active or not. He finally bit out how succession of the Head was done.

“Nono’s last blood son was found reduced to ashes in Florence a couple of days ago. The only ones left right now with Vongola blood that are capable of inheriting the mantle are you and I, Tsunayoshi.” He finished.

“And you can’t.” He shook his head.

“Due to how I’ve headed CEDEF for the past decade, I’m ineligible unless all other options have been eliminated.” Nana had a hand in front of her mouth, and the one around her coffee mug was bone white. Tsuna's hands were folded on the table, and shaking ever so slightly. Iemitsu refused to look at their eyes. He didn’t want to see the hatred and anger there.

“And because I’m the only choice left, they won’t give _me_ a choice.” Tsuna mused, scratching at the table wood. “So the options are either kill me and leave you in charge, or put me up as the new heir.”

“I’m sorry.” It was all he could choke out, squeezing his eyes shut. “I’m so sorry, Tsuna, I never wanted this for you, I tried so hard-” He cut himself off as a chair screeched against the flooring. There was the soft sound of socks against the flooring before arms hesitantly put themselves around his shoulders, lean and packed with the muscles that came with regular workouts. Iemitsu tensed.

“I love you, dad.” Iemitsu’s eyes shot open. “I love you no matter what, and that’s not going to change just because something like this happened. It’s- it’s unavoidable, from what you said, and it’s not like you were the one killing the men, so it’s not your fault.”

“ _T_ _suna_.”

“You came back,” The boy soldiers on, “You came back and mama stopped being mmm-iserable all the time and you fixed what you did and paid attention when I said I didn’t have friends and that people were bullying me. You helped with my homework and taught me to defend myself, and you _stayed_ , dad.” There’s a sniffle against Iemitsu’s upper arm. “It’s- it’s, it’s super scary, this mafia stuff, but I have you and mama and Haru-chan and Shouchan, so I’ll be alright. I’ll be _okay_.”

Iemitsu holds onto his son as hard as he had Nana that night years ago and thanks God for this one thing. He thanks everything in the heavens for someone listening to him those nights in the orphanage where he prayed for a family. It wasn’t the Vongola that had been the answer.

It’d been this.


End file.
